Conservatives Endorse Borrello for Vacated Senate Seat

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello (R-Irving) hasn’t announced his intention to seek a seat in the New York State Senate, but that hasn’t stopped at least one political party from endorsing him to fill the vacated seat.

The Chautauqua County Conservative Party in a media release said it is endorsing Borrello for the recently vacated 57th district New York Senate seat held by Senator Cathy Young. Last month Young announced she was leaving the Senate on March 10 in order to take a job with Cornell University.

The Conservative Party announcement was made Tuesday afternoon by chairwoman and member of the State Conservative Executive Committee, Anna Wilcox. She said the decision to endorse Borrello came after consulting with members of the Conservative Executive Committee and the State Conservative Party Chairman, Gerard Kassar.

Wilcox says the recent shift in power in Albany (due to Democrats taking control of the Senate) means its imperative that the strongest and best qualified candidate run for the seat in order to stand up to the progressive agenda and her party believes that person is Borrello.

“Soon we will have legalization of marijuana, in spite of numerous studies warning about the harmful effects on the brains of adolescents. We now have one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, one that borders on infanticide, whose signing into law by the Governor was celebrated by cheering left-wing Democrat lawmakers,” Wilcox said in her statement. “While some people may be apprehensive about losing a promising young County Executive, it is imperative that the strongest and best qualified candidate run for this Senate seat. We need someone who believes that Catholics, Protestants, and people of faith should be respected, not ridiculed; that it is our right to own a gun, if we so choose, to protect our homes and our families; that being on welfare should be a temporary situation — not a permanent lifestyle, and that illegal immigrants should not go to New York State Universities tuition free, while hard working lower and middle class families take out mortgages and work two jobs to send their kids to college. We need someone who will stand up and fight for the interests and beliefs of the people of the 57th district. We need George Borrello.”

Borrello, who became county executive at the start of 2018 hasn’t even announced his potential candidacy, though he did say during a recent Facebook live conference with constituents that it is something he’d consider, but hadn’t made any commitment.

“Whether or not I’m interested in it, I love what I do hear as the county executive in Chautauqua County,” Borrello said on March 1. “I feel like we’re making great progress, we’ve got a lot of initiatives and we planted some great seeds here. The only way I think I would really consider it is if I truly felt I could better represent the people of Chautauqua County in that position than as county executive. Right now, this is so fresh – the ink is barely dry on this – so I’m not going to make any commitments one way or the other, but I do love being the county executive and I think we have a lot of great things going on.”

WRFA reached out to Borrello via email on Tuesday night for a reaction to the Conservative Party’s endorsement but have yet to hear back from him as of Wednesday morning.

While the Conservative Party has endorsed Borrello as its candidate, and past Senate candidate Nancy Bargar (D-Lakewood) has also announced her interest in the vacated seat, there has been no news on when an election to fill the vacated seat will take place. The governor has the option of calling for a special election but if he fails to do that, an election will be held during the November general election to fill the remainder of the term in the Senate, which ends on Dec. 1, 2020.

Also according to the Jamestown Post-Journal, current assemblyman for Chautauqua County, Republican Andy Goodell (R-Gerry), has said he wont be seeking the senate seat.